


You Should Have Told Me

by Kitsune_Scribe



Category: Dragon's Bait - Vivian Vande Velde
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 10:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20469365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitsune_Scribe/pseuds/Kitsune_Scribe
Summary: Alys and Selendrile have agreed to travel together, but there's still quite a few other things they have to work out.





	You Should Have Told Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Scytale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scytale/gifts).

"I saw the Witch in the crowd at Saint Toby's. She must have been the one who told Atherton how to capture you. We should get away from Griswold." Alys worried that Selendrile would just kill the Witch, but she couldn't bear to see Selendrile trapped in iron again. She had to be sure they'd leave the area.

Selendrile looked at her for a long moment. "Generally it's knights that come after dragons not old witches."

"Well there's nothing to say she won't tell a knight next." Alys said. Looking at his almost healed wrist and trying not to look anywhere else.

Selendrile shrugged but stood and started walking away from the haystack. Turning to follow the road once he reached it.

"Where are we going?" Alys asked as she hurried to catch up.

"North."

"That's a direction not a destination." Alys said exasperated.

Selendrile looked over at her calmly.

"You don't have any idea what's north of here do you."

"I know what's south of here, and that I have no interest in going back there. And you say we can't stay here, so we're heading this way along the road for now." 

Alys looked at him as they walked. "You don't know the area at all, do you?" She said realizing that everything looked very different from the air even as low as Selendrile had been flying with her in his arms. "You should have told me."

Alys insisted on pushing on through the night wanting to put as much distance between Selendrile and the Witch as possible. The moon was bright enough to see the road but Selendrile soon tired of their walking pace and turned back into his natural form.

She whooped with laughter as they flew over the forest they found stretching out to the north of Griswold. Alys' arms ached but the rush of excitement allowed her to ignore it in favor of watching the trees through eyes squinted by the wind. 

After a few hours he seemed to slow down and she looked around concerned. With the wind no longer rushing so much she noticed a rumbling in his gut and that he seemed to be having a harder time flapping his wings.

Before she could shout anything they dove towards the ground and she found herself bouncing down into a new haystack. 

"You aren't used to carrying anything so far are you?" she asked. 

He glared at her before heading towards a pen of sheep giving an awful cry like a huge bird of prey to send them all running to one end of the pen. She heard a terrified bleat and a sick crunching sound as Selendrile caught one of the sheep and started eating.

Not long after, as she was trying to remind herself that this was no different from the time a lone wolf got into Andreu's pigsty last year, she saw movement near the farmhouse. Alys scrambled to hide behind the haystack. Peeking out from her hiding place she watched two people emerge from the house. Alys was reminded of what had happened to the wolf as the farmer, either brave or foolish because this was no half starved wolf, ran out and grabbed a pitchfork before heading towards Selendrile. 

Alys watched in horror not wanting either to be hurt but Selendrile merely broke his makeshift weapon and with a glance at her hiding place swatted the farmer in the direction of the road. His wife ran over and pulled him away while keeping up a litany of prayers as if they would protect her from the wrath of an attacking dragon.

Alys stayed in hiding until both the sound of prayers and feeding dragon ended. 

"Or just not used to carrying someone so long without eating." she said looking at Selendrile as he cleaned his claws in a nearby patch of grass. "You should have told me."

\---

Selendrile insisted on staying the night. He changed just long enough to fit through the door of the farmhouse and then settled down in the main room to sleep and digest his meal. Alys wanted to argue but now that they were no longer moving the exertions of the last day caught up with her and she fell asleep almost before she found the farmhouse's single bed. 

She started groggily as she heard movement besides her seemingly seconds later. 

"Do you always sleep for that long?" Selendrile asked, putting down a steaming bowl of porridge that she doubted had come from the farmhouse they were currently staying in. 

Alys sat up in her stolen bed and grumbled, "I haven't gotten a full night's sleep since I was accused of being a witch."

"What, you're meant to sleep more?" Selendrile demanded. "How do any of you humans get anything done if you're asleep half the day?"

"That's an idea." Alys muttered.

Selendrile just looked at her, refusing to ask what she meant.

"I could get part of my sleep during the day." Alys said thinking aloud. "As long as I had someplace fairly safe, I could sleep while you're out…" she trailed off.

"Pillaging the countryside?" Selendrile suggested.

"I've been trying not to think of that." Alys said. Looking around the cottage that until recently had held a farmer and his wife. 

"It's really not that bad." Selendrile said.

"Tell that to the people you send out of their houses." She said thinking of the faces of the people in Saint Toby's when Selendrile had rescued her. 

"Well, how else are you going to find someplace safe to sleep every day?" Selendrile asked. 

Alys paused stumped. Even if she were willing to keep using Selendrile's hoard to stay in inns, people would expect her to be out working or looking for work during the day. Or, since they were traveling, sleep during the night and travel by day. She wouldn't be able to sleep during the day without seeming strange unless she had a reason to stay up most of the night.

One that wasn't I was spending time with the dragon that was terrorizing the local farms. Or witchcraft.

"I don't know." she admitted. 

"Well you can think about it while I'm gone today." Selendrile said.

"Gone? Where?" Alys asked thinking of the sheep that were still out on the pen. 

"We left rather abruptly and there are some things I have to go back and take care of." 

"You aren't going to hurt anyone are you?"

Selendrile stared flatly at her as if to remind her he had spared the life of the farmer and his wife just for her.

Alys tried to think of any other reason he might have for returning to the are they had just left. Suddenly the glint of a bit of tin in the firelight reminded her and she gasped, "Your hoard. We left it behind. You should have told me."

\---

"I'm beginning to think that you should dress as a girl." Alys grumbled a few days later as they walked away from the farmhouse where Selendrile had somehow convinced the people inside to sell him grain and vegetables after sundown without also having to spend the night.

"Wouldn't that make us more tempting targets?" Selendrile asked. "I thought you were continuing to dress as a boy because it was safer."

Alys grimaced as her own reasoning was thrown back at her. "It would look odder, a young woman traveling with only her young brother, or worse, her sister."

"Then why suggest it?"

Alys said nothing hoping the dragon might get distracted by the boring dirt path they were traveling down. 

Selendrile stopped to stare at her instead.

"The farmer's daughter was flirting with you." she finally spit out.

"Well, yes, and she slipped a few more vegetables into the sack because of it." Selendrile said smugly.

"Is that why you were flirting back? Not because" Alys broke off looking away.

"Because?"

"You weren't attracted to her?" Alys asked.

Selendrile gave her a flat look as if her suggestion was to foolish to even answer. "You're the one who insists we pay for your food. It goes further if we buy from people who want to flirt with me."

Alys felt guilty again about the further loss from Selendrile's hoard. But there wasn't anything more that she could do about it. Selendrile had recovered most of it during the day after they had left Saint Toby's for good and now he was giving it away bit by bit to keep her conscience clear.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"Why were you worried anyway?" Selendrile asked. "We were there for less than an hour before we moved on."

"Oh yes, why would I be upset by the thought that you were attracted to a tall and beautiful blonde girl." Alys grumbled.

Selendrile looked at her closely for far longer than she liked. She hunched in a little trying to hide her annoyance. 

"You're jealous." He said suddenly. "You didn't want me to flirt with her or any of the others because you want me to flirt with you.

"Not flirt exactly." Alys hedged, "I just would like you to be interested in me."

"I'm traveling with you. I've been interested in you since you threw a rock at me."

"That's not the same." She said fighting down her blush.

Selendrile swung around in front of her. And pulled her close to him. "You are jealous. And you're interested in me." He bent down a bit bringing his face suddenly much closer to hers. "You should have told me." He said as he closed the last bit of distance between them in a kiss.


End file.
